


Taking the Plunge

by MeganMoonlight



Series: Taking Risks [2]
Category: Stargate Universe
Genre: Friendship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-05
Updated: 2011-08-05
Packaged: 2017-10-22 06:01:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,046
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/234652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MeganMoonlight/pseuds/MeganMoonlight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was dangerous, but aso everything he needed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Taking the Plunge

This whole thing was… overwhelming, if Everett Young could put it that way. It was the only adjective that could at least a little describe how he felt about his still new, more than professional relationship with Nicholas Rush.

He was sitting in his office, and he should be working on the reports from the last couple of missions, but instead he was sitting at his desk, playing with a pen and looking at the dark ceiling. It was a couple of hours past midnight. There was no point in checking, his shift had finished a long time ago, but he decided to stay longer to catch up on all the paperwork he had been avoiding regularly for the past two weeks. It was because now he had more enjoyable things to do than to spend his free time filling out various kinds of forms and reports. He started putting them for later. Their new missions weren’t too hard, so it never took much paperwork to deal with them, but now Young realized that leaving most of them for later wasn’t a smart idea, now Young knew that. It was hard to admit that he had let himself neglect work in such way.

It wasn’t hard, however, to blame it all on Rush. For the whole time the man seemed to be working harder than him: leaving earlier, getting back to his quarters a couple of hours after finishing his “calculations time”, as Eli liked to call it. He kept all his notes and notebooks close, just in case, and it was hard to catch up with him when he was wrapped up in equations and calculations. But it wasn’t anything new. What still surprised Young was the fact that even with all the time he dedicated to his work, Rush always managed to have some time off, stay relaxed and keep up his appearances. Young admired that, and Rush knew it, too, and probably that was why he always managed to talk Young into taking some time to relax, or even get him to work, when Young assumed the scientist felt the need to work. At first it was terribly irritating , but Young had never commented on it, so it was probably his own fault that the other man could talk him into anything he wanted to. He never resisted too much, he finally admitted that to himself and well, most of the time it turned out that Rush had been absolutely right and Young needed more rest. Actually, both of them needed it, especially since they had some tiresome tasks and obligations.

It still surprised him how Rush always knew exactly what to say, how good he was with words, not only when it came to talking to him. Young noticed people started to listen to Rush carefully, even if most of them resisted at first. The people of Destiny got used to talking to Rush, and even if not everybody completely believed him yet and there were some doubts, people usually listened. It wasn’t surprising that after all the time he had spent on the ship he learnt how to talk with various people and it was an ability useful in a lot of situations, but it still amazed him in a way. Also, before he and Rush got together he would have never believed the scientist’s skills in this particular area could ever be directed at him in a more private way. He wasn’t able to complain about that, because it would be a lie and Rush wouldn’t ever believe him. After all, he was like an open book to the other man, and this thought… this thought was still disturbing and it was hard to reconcile himself to it.

And now he was sitting and thinking that the next addictive thing about Nicholas Rush was not so much his way with words, but rather the way he talked with Young when they were alone. It wasn’t hard to see that Rush had finally opened himself to him. He was kind of proud he was the reason, or at least part of the reason the scientist had changed and trusted him more with the personal more individual, and private side of their relationship.

“I have Rush’s newest report for you about the ‘gate.”

He blinked a couple of times and found himself looking at Camile Wray, who was leaning against the wall, holding a folder of papers in one hand. One raised eyebrow and a slight smile on her face made him roll his eyes.

“Thank you, Camile,” he replied, smiling at her as she handed him the folder and returned his smile. He felt a lot better knowing that she had started to actually talk to him after the events from the last time about the equipment accidents. They hadn’t spend much time together “bonding”, as Eli liked to put it, but he indeed felt like there were shades of understanding between them when it came to safety of people on Destiny.

“You know,” she started, a moment after when he opened the folder and looked at the first sheet of paper, “…why can’t he give you them himself when you visit him? It would save a lot of time, you know. Mine and yours,” she finished and Young opened his mouth slightly, shocked, but mostly wondering how she had managed to find out. If she had found out. He wasn’t going to give anything away just in case his assumptions were wrong, but…

“What do you mean?”

“Listen,” she sighed. “For somebody who is completely oblivious or doesn’t care, everything is just as it always was, but there are people who actually care, you know. Want to know how you are, if everything is okay…”

“Camile, I still don’t understand…”

“You spend more time with him, you keep looking at each other, talk more and even when you fight the tone of voice you both use shows that you care. When he’s trying to explain something you stand closer to him than you usually would. Don’t make me keep going. You know there is more,” she said and sat on the chair on the other side of the desk. A soft, reassuring smile appeared on her face and this sympathetic expression made Young exhale slowly and he decided it would be better to focus on the files laying in front of him. He was aware of Camile looking at him. It was weird to talk about it with anybody, since it was the first time anybody acknowledged his and Rush’s relationship in the five months of it lasting.

He had hoped it’d take longer, that he could hide it for a little more, hoped that nobody would notice. They made sure of that, were careful about everything, but obviously it was naïve to hope people would just pretend they didn’t know and wouldn’t talk about it, especially somebody like Camile Wray.  
Camile’s and his working relationship had never been easy and there were still misunderstandings and differences of opinions between them, but at a moment like that one, her interest in his life wasn’t… unwelcome. A part of him felt a little relieved that somebody knew and wasn’t trying to use the information , and it was a good feeling. It wasn’t easy to get used to the feeling of anybody knowing, but before anything started, he was prepared for everything, kept thinking about it. Now, when obviously Camile had found out he had to do something. Not saying anything was one of the options, he could still pretend he didn’t know what she was talking about and deny anything she had told him, but the sincere look on her face and the feeling that maybe… maybe it wouldn’t be bad to talk about it with somebody. But jumping in without thinking about the consequences was out of the question, so he decided to wait, not wanting to give anything away just yet. Not before he made sure his assumptions weren’t wrong.

Camile sighed.

“Do as you want,” she said finally, when he decided not to answer. ”I just wanted to let you know that I know how you feel right now. You’re not alone, if you’d ever like to talk. Right now everything may seem complicated for you, but I promise, it gets better with time. It feels like you’re lost now, am I right? You don’t know if talking to anybody might cause trouble for you and for Nicholas…”

Young swallowed quietly, his eyes not leaving the sheet of paper laying on his desk, forgotten now, since his mind was somewhere else at the moment. Listening to everything Camile said in a calm, quiet voice, Young was sure her eyes were focused directly on him for the whole time.

“… you will do whatever you want, I’m not going to pry. Just know that you and Nicholas are not alone in this. I understand what you’re going through,” she exhaled, and when Young was sure she was finished, he looked at her.

Camile stood up and when she was about to leave the room, Young sighed. “Camile, you and your partner…”

She turned around slightly at Young’s words. “Yes, Sharon. We’ve been together for so long now…” she answered, smiling, probably at the thought of said Sharon. “It was hard at first, hiding, but believe me, it really does get better once you can talk to somebody.” She was ready to leave when Young called her again. She once again stopped, but without turning around this time.

“Thank you…” his voice was quiet, hoping she’d understand how important it was to him.

“You’re welcome,” she replied just as quietly and left the office.

Young kept looking at the door for a long time, long after Camile had left. He felt reassured by her words and really relieved, but on the other hand he hoped that not everybody was as observant as she was. Blinking a couple of times and once again thinking the last fifteen minutes over in his head, he closed the folder, put it in the drawer and left the office. Rush should be in his quarters already, if he wasn’t mistaken. He needed… contact and closeness.

***

He hoped they wouldn’t have any surprises for at least two weeks. He was exhausted, problems with the equipment weren’t helping and weird tremors of the ship lasting for two days now only managed to irritate everybody even more. The scientists were working on shifts night and day to find out the cause of the tremors, all the soldiers tried to keep civilians safe and calm. To keep everybody safe he informed the people that all of them could walk around the ship at least in pairs, never on their own to prevent from anything bad happening in case of next, harder tremors, until they find out what was happening with Destiny.

People seemed to be nervous and he wasn’t really surprised. It took Scott, Chloe, TJ and Camile some time to talk to everybody , calm them down when they needed it and not let the panic take over the ship. It was obvious people wouldn’t stop being tense if they didn’t get any answers, but all they could do was wait.

Young sighed and felt that a break from work for a while could be a good idea. When he got up he realized how hungry he really was and never noticed it when he was wrapped up in reports, so eating sounded good as well. He couldn’t even remember the last time he managed to eat an actual meal. He didn’t even remember. For some time he only had quick sandwiches, sometimes some fruit too and a lot of coffee, not always warm, as he would like, so a warm soup could probably make him feel better. He felt tired, but right now he didn’t want to cause anymore problems for TJ, who was already very busy without him adding anything to it. It was obvious she was tired, too, but still kept working, talking with people and helping them if they needed it and she must have had a lot of patience since she never really complained about anything, and it was one of her best qualities. She was simply amazing at her job.

Leaving the office, Young kept thinking he should do something to keep people safer, because obviously walking around in pairs wasn’t really any safer if anything exploded or fell off, but without any information about the ship’s status he couldn’t do anything. The tremors disappeared for a couple of hours now, so at least they all could stop holding their breath at least until the next time.  
Mess hall was nearly empty so spotting Rush right away wasn’t hard. He was sitting all alone by the table next to the wall, in the corner of the room, reading and writing something and eating a sandwich at the same time. He was focused on the sheets of paper laying on his table, eyes never leaving them and Young was sure Rush was barely blinking. He took a sip from his cup, Young assumed it wasn’t his first cup of coffee, and got back to reading, while he was scribbling something on the paper from time to time.

Young felt hypnotized by the image in front of him. He forgot he was standing in the middle of the room, looking at the scientist, exhaling softly the breath he didn’t even remember holding, but it was okay. He didn’t mind too much.

“Anything new?” he asked stepping closer and taking place opposite to Rush’s.

“I’m not sure yet, Colonel,” the other man answered softly, not taking his eyes off the calculations.

When he closed his eyes for a moment and Young had a clear view of the man’s face, it was obvious how tired he really was even if he did quite a good job of hiding it. He barely stopped himself from yawning so Young just laid a hand in the centre of the sheet of paper, hoping it’ll make Rush stop looking at it or at least take a break. He wasn’t mistaken, the gesture made Rush look at him, one eyebrow raised and lips pressed into a thin line. Irritated , he was staring without blinking and Young knew that if he couldn’t let go, otherwise Rush would just get back to work and it wouldn’t do any good to him. Sometimes Young really wondered how Rush managed to always give everybody good advice, but never following it himself. It felt like a personal quest to make the scientist take a break once in a while.

“Eli can take care of it, you know,” he said, with his eyes still locked with Rush’s. “You keep working and I bet you haven’t slept in more than thirty six hours. You’re already exhausted. Doesn’t matter how good you are at hiding it, Rush.”

“I am not hiding anything, Colonel, nor am I trying to. I’m simply trying to find out what is really going on with Destiny, as soon as possible. I haven’t slept much for a couple of months now, as you may have noticed,” he added, his lips forming a slight smirk. Young rolled his eyes.

“But you’re not the only one who is working on it, you know. Everybody’s doing what they can and you’ll feel better if you rest,” he said when he saw the other man opening his mouth to interrupt him. “Listen to me at least this once, for a change, will you? I want you to go to bed and get some sleep, because you’ll be of no use if you’re tired. You keep telling me this, so how about following your own advice once in a while?”

Rush stared at him.

“Maybe…” he sighed, almost defeated. “But not today, I’m afraid. We’re so close already… something is missing, but I feel if we will follow this train of thought Eli suggested at the beginning, this picture might become clearer.”

“You won’t see any picture if you fall asleep, you know. ”

Rush once again raised one eyebrow but this time he also smiled a little and Young felt himself mirroring the smile, thankful that they were the only ones present in the room, because it was hard to resist looking into Rush’s eyes. The scientist rarely smiled, a little more since they got together, but still not enough if anybody asked Young, so every time it happened, it should be appreciated.  
“Very well, then. I will be in my quarters if you need me,” he left the room, small smile still visible on his face and Young chuckled when the other man disappeared behind the now closed door.

***

He joined Rush as soon as he finished sorting out all the orders and the new reports from the scientists. It was the second night in a row that they spent together. Young had stopped being obsessively careful about being seen, just as Camile said, even if he was still a little… scared, the sense of more freedom made him feel a little better, but some habits were hard to break, especially if they never changed since he had started to spent time with Rush. He still couldn’t help but occasionally turn his head around a few times, checking the corridor before he entered the room.

Rush was once again laying on the bed, fully clothed, reading a book. When he saw Young his face lit up a little as he got up from the bed. Young returned the smile and took off his jacket. He was about to take off his t-shirt, too, when he felt his partner’s arms sneaking around his waist, warming up all the skin he could find under the shirt with teasing touches. Who was he to say no to that? He helped Rush take off the rest of his clothes and soon they were both laying on the bed, the scientist’s warm hands were on his shoulders, neck, back and landed on the neck again as Young bit, licked and kissed other man’s shoulder blades and chest, heading south down his stomach. As the scientist took hold of his neck and his other hand made its way to Young’s head, burying the fingers in his hair, Young couldn’t fight the urge to smile. Rush’s quiet moans and curses only encouraged him to keep working his way down the body beneath him.

It was going to be a satisfying night.

***

The next morning he left the room later than he expected and he hoped nobody had been searching for him while he’d been having a hard time leaving the arm bed and soft pillow that smelled like Rush. It definitely would’ve been hard to explain his presence there. Fortunately the corridor was empty, surprisingly so, and he headed right away to his room to change and get to work, since he was sure Rush had been up for a couple of hours at least. He also knew he was smiling and bothering to hide it would be just a waste of time. And the fact that everything seemed to be quiet, peaceful and easy for a couple of days helped his mood improve, too.

Rush seemed as always calm and distant when working, still spending more time on finding out anything about the tremors than he had to, since they seemed to disappear as fast as they appeared, without any warnings. People were calming down when they were informed that everything is finally under control. Or at least he hoped so, that’s why he let Scott tell everybody that they were still working to make sure nothing else would happen. Camile along with Chloe still managed to talk to people, telling them they were all safe when somebody started to panic. Both of them worked hard on making sure the moods on the ship were good enough. Having most of the things in check helped their task, too.

Scott and Greer had been working with the scientists while everybody else had been doing what they could to help or at least not to get too much in the way, which wasn’t too hard as soon as everybody had calmed down.  
Young took time to ask everybody how the work was going, not having anything better to do at the moment. After all everything besides giving orders was in the hands of the scientists now.

He was tired. A nap sounded very good and a warm bed even better. He also wouldn’t mind something warm to drink. He could use some sleep and since Rush wouldn’t be sleeping at all, at least that night, he could go straight to his quarters, wrap himself up n a comforter and forget about everything for at least eight hours. He let out a contented sigh when a very appealing image of a huge bed appeared in his mind.

Just when he had entered the corridor, he collided with something hard and he braced himself against the wall, trying not to fall on the ground.

“Shit, I’m sorry, sir,” Young looked at Scott who was straightening out his uniform.

“It’s alright, Scott, don’t worry about it. Everything finished?”

“Yes, sir. I mean so far Eli isn’t saying much, at least not about the state of the Destiny, but he said he’d be fine by himself so we could take a break. Greer stayed with him just in case he needed any help.”

“Good. Anybody besides Eli and Rush need any help?”

Scott shrugged and sighed. “I don’t think so. There weren’t any messages from the others, so I guess…”

“Okay. Is that all you wanted to talk about? You seemed to be in a hurry,” Young asked, heading along with Scott to the next corridor, waiting for the younger man’s answer. It was obvious he wanted to talk about something, he kept exhaling like he was preparing himself, but when no words came out for some time, it was easy to assume Young wasn’t the one Scott wanted to talk with. That or he really had problems with approaching a subject.

“Sir, may I ask you a question?”

“What is it?”

“Could we… go somewhere more private? I don’t think the corridor is a good place to talk.”

Young nodded, curious, and let Scott in. When the door was closed he told the younger man to sit down. He really wondered why Scott was so nervous.

“I wanted to ask,” he said after a few seconds of uncomfortable silence, “have you noticed doctor Rush’s behavior lately?”

Young’s heart started to beat a little bit faster. Was it possible that more people had noticed his and Rush’s interactions and given them so much thought? What if they all found out? He tried his best to hide everything he felt at the moment, to look as sure of himself and as confident as he could.

“What about his behavior, exactly?” he asked.

“He keeps looking at us. You, me, Camile, Chloe as if he’s plotting something. Camile keeps looking at him, too. I talked with Greer and we think they could be hiding something again. We know how it ended the last time, after all. I know you’ve been talking with Rush a lot lately, sir, and I think it’s good you keep an eye on him,” Scott licked his lips a little nervously. “I just wanted to make sure you knew, sir, I really don’t like the way he keeps looking at everybody. He’s been watching you lately, too. More than it’s necessary. He’s been watching you more closely for a couple of months now, I think, if Greer is right about all that.”

Young would have to think about all that. It wasn’t what he expected Scott to say, but if he and Greer had noticed even that, it wasn’t good.

“Thank you, Scott. I’ll make sure to talk to Rush to see if you might be right. I just want to assure you that both Rush and Camile are on our side. The last incident was not exclusively their fault and we can’t blame the civilians for everything, because we’re supposed to be a team. We are all in this together, you have to remember that and the same goes for Greer and the rest,” Young explained, trying to sound calm and reserved. “Our situation will never get better if we don’t stop blaming everybody around us and don’t start trusting each other.” He finished, feeling like he was telling the same thing for a hundredth time already. The situation still wasn’t much better and he hoped it wouldn’t cause any more problems in the near future when they already had more going on than they would like to. They all still had to find a way to get along somehow. It was the next thing he’d have to give a thought, if the problem still existed, obviously. And that was it for his plans to sleep and relax.

“Yes, sir,” Scott answered shortly, obviously not entirely satisfied, but nodding nonetheless . He got up and headed to the door. “I’m just concerned, sir. If something happens - something serious - because of Rush, it’ll look like you approved of everything and I don’t want you, us, to get in trouble because he cares more about this ship than he cares about the lives of everybody aboard the Destiny,” he stated seriously and with another short nod, he left the room.

Young sat down heavily on the bed and touched his fingers together. It took him a long time before he could think about anything else besides what Scott had just told him.

A part of him knew Scott might’ve been right, after all it was exactly what he had been thinking about before he and Rush became closer to each other, he had just tried to ignore it. He wasn’t sure if it was wishful thinking or not, he just felt like Rush wouldn’t betray them all, so forgetting about it made sense at a time. But now Scott reminded him about this part, about the fact that he himself had often blamed so many things on Rush in the past, and even if Young really didn’t want to believe Rush was planning anything, all the memories of those thoughts came back. Just as he’d expected, a relationship with Nicholas Rush was not only dangerous, but also complicated.  
He couldn’t sleep that night and for the first time since he had slept with Rush for the first time, he felt really down and he didn’t know what to do. Talking with the scientist was the only option, but there was still the fear of complicating things even more.

***

“Rush, we have to talk when you have some time,” he said as he entered the ‘gateroom, seeing Rush and Eli working.

“Can we do it tomorrow, perhaps? I should be done with most of the important calculus then.”  
Young nodded and kept looking at Rush for a little longer to see if he could read something from the other man’s expression, but to no avail: Rush was as always professional and composed.

“… may I ask you a question?”  
Young blinked a couple of times and looked at Eli who seemed to be a little confused and uncertain. Trying not to sigh was harder than he expected, but he exhaled softly instead and nodded. “Yes, Eli?”

“Scott and TJ said that soon everybody would have to show up to some kind of meeting because you have to tell us something. What’s going on? Any plans or what?”

It wasn’t difficult to notice Rush’s raised eyebrow, but it was easy not to look at him in that particular moment, since Eli really seemed to be concerned about the subject, or as if he had done something wrong.

“It was brought to my attention that there are still trust issues on the Destiny and it looks like once again we will have to talk about it,” he answered calmly and Eli blinked a couple of times, opening his mouth slightly, ready to say something. Before the younger man could say anything, Young tried to explain. “I have a feeling we will keep talking about it until people realize and understand what I tried to tell them the last time.”

“But Cam talked to everybody, right? Everything seemed to be fine. I haven’t heard anything lately…”

“The fact that you don’t see something, Eli, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. You know that. We’ll discuss everything in the right time.”

“Okay, sure.”

“Good. I’ll leave you to your work, then,” Young said and looked briefly at Rush before leaving the room. How should he deal with the same situation all over again to make people understand anything?

***

He had no idea why he was surprised by everything that had happened lately – that was what bothered him the most. He was more or less prepared for it after all. He had known all the risks of getting involved even before it all started, before he got used to having Rush around. But at the time, it wasn’t as… real. Now there were possibilities he’d never bothered to think about and the fact that the scientist hadn’t done anything to make people believe Scott’s suspicions weren’t true.

He knew Rush, he rarely cared about what other people thought of him. It wasn’t anything new, but it meant he always did what he thought was right, without bothering to explain his plans and assumptions. He could ignore everybody for as long as it took to finish his work and he almost never let the others’ opinions change his mind, especially about something he was sure of, unless he saw some obvious evidence. Just like now. Rush was so focused on finding out what was wrong with the ship that he never cared about how his sneaking out of the rooms, working all the time and keeping working on the computers might look like to people who didn’t know anything.

He really had to talk to Rush.

It took some time to finish the next reports, he tried to not let himself be distracted by unwanted thoughts, but when he was reading, almost everything ended up being about Rush. It was irritating, and also yet another thing he blamed on the other man.  
When he was back in his quarters, he laid down on his bed, closed his eyes and tried to stop thinking for at least a couple of minutes. It was tiresome and he still had to think of a way to talk to Rush. People were once again becoming suspicious of everything and all the consequences of it made his head hurt. But coffee would probably help him with that. His plans were ruined right away, when he heard knocking on his door. He fought the sigh that wanted to escape his moth when he had heard the sound. The door opened and Rush entered the room.

“Rush…” he started and run a hand thought his hair. Obviously, the chat he’d thought about had to happen sooner than he’d expected. The scientist stood in the middle of the room now, not moving at all, just looking in his direction and it was even more frustrating.

“What did you want to talk about, Colonel?” he asked. “I was wondering what was going on for a while, but from what I have heard from people it has something to do with the last issue of the tremors, am I right?”

“Mostly, but not only,” he groaned, sat back down on the bed and gestured to Rush to sit down on the chair opposite to the bed. He took the place obediently, as if he’d expected the chat to be longer, waiting for Young to explain everything.

“Overall, people are afraid of another disagreement between the civilians and my people.”

“Your people?”

“Rush, you know what I mean. Could you at least try not to make this even harder?” at Rush’s nod, Young sighed. “Doesn’t matter how good everything seems to be, I have to react somehow, because it was brought to my attention and I promised to talk with you,” he fought the urge to groan and inhaled softly. Why was he feeling so nervous all of sudden? “People are concerned about your work. Since you mostly work on your own on the tremors, Eli doesn’t really count here even if he’s helping you as much as he can, but you’re spending the most time on it, a lot more than the others. I have to come up with something to control the situation, so I think it would be best to check up on you from time to time,” he finished slowly, looking up to meet Rush’s eyes.

“Matters of trust,” Rush nodded. “You are afraid they are right and I might cause more trouble to you and the crew.”

“It’s not about that and you know it. I had to do what people…”

“I understand, don’t worry. You do your thing, people expect you to control the situation. It’s not surprising. So I don’t really understand why are you so nervous about the whole matter. Trust issues won’t disappear, doesn’t matter what you do, people will believe what they want to believe. I doubt it would change just because somebody told them whom they should trust. I thought you know that.”

“Listen, I told you…”

“Well, if you ask me, you don’t really make much sense at the moment. You do your job well from what I see, but you’re still so uneasy about it. More than you should, actually.”

Young wanted to scream. Was Rush doing it all on purpose? Was he trying to make Young lose his temper, was he playing some sort of a game with him? How could he keep talking like that after he had obviously seen how hard it must be for him to talk about it? He closed his eyes for a moment, preventing himself from looking at the scientist who was sitting on the chair, his arms folded, looking completely relaxed.

But then the scientist stood up right in front of Young, and sat down on the bed next to him, not too close, putting a distance between them.

“I understand, you know. I really do. I also believe I know what you might be thinking right now. I know I’ve never given you much reason to trust me, have I? I doubt my words will change anything, but I am going to try anyway. I want everybody to get back. I also want to save Destiny, it’s not a secret, but I don’t plan on sacrificing anybody to do it, doesn’t matter if the others believe it or not,” he licked his lips and swallowed, still looking directly at Young.

Young just opened his mouth, but no words came out for some time. Everything was silent , only their breathing could be heard in the room. The uncomfortable silence just made him more restless and he was sure the beating of his heart was also louder because of this.

Of course Rush would see everything Young felt. He finally had to get used to the feeling of Rush knowing him inside and out, even if everyday things were getting more and more complicated and sometimes it was difficult to get hold of all the things he experienced, especially when it came to the bond between him and Rush. Relationships meant trusting each other after all, and Young realized after his last chat with Scott just how limited his trust in Rush was, even if everything seemed to be fine for the last couple of months. And he had no idea how much Rush trusted him either, but right now he had to forget about himself. His priority was the safety of people on Destiny, and he had to focus on it. He turned his head around to look into the other man’s eyes.

“Listen, for now… we will be watched by many more people and…” he didn’t have time to finish the sentence, because the whole ship suddenly trembled. Books fell from the bookshelves, everything on the desk was wet because of the spilled coffee and Young heard Scott’s voice.

“Colonel, the quakes are back. Eli and I are already in the ‘gateroom, just in case. Greer and the others are checking up on the scientist and the civilians.”

“Understood. I’ll be with you right away. Young out.”

Young left the quarters along with Rush and headed to the ‘gateroom. Everybody was already there talking quietly with each other, whispering from time to time and it wasn’t hard to notice all the tension and nervous expressions on a couple of faces.

Rush left his side and took a place by Eli’s side next to the console and the computer and they talked about something that was lost on him when a couple of civilians, Rogers and West started to shout at each other, in the process also accusing Rush and the other scientist of doing nothing to help them, or doing everything on purpose to take charge and have Destiny for themselves.

“Stop it! That’s an order!” Young finally said loudly, trying to remain calm, Scott joining him a couple of seconds later to help him with keeping people from fighting. “I assure you all,” he started again after majority of people in the room had calmed down enough to hear him loud and clear, “we all do what we can to find a way to stop the tremors, and Eli along with doctor Rush…”

“They both have something to do with it! Everybody knows Rush cares only about this ship!” somebody from the last row of the group shouted and through the whole group echoed voices of agreement and nodding. Young glanced at Scott, who looked right back and it was clear he agreed with the statement even if he kept silent. Young knew that if he didn’t do something people would start shouting and it was going to be hell.  
He glanced in Rush and Eli’s direction, but noticed that both of them were focused mostly on the computer screen. With the corner of his eye Eli spotted the shouting people and a slight grimace appeared on his face, but he kept working. Rush on the other hand looked like he wasn’t noticing anything in the room besides his notes and the computer. Well, at least one person was…

“Roger, you know that’s not true,” TJ said right away and when she stood up everybody’s eyes were on her directly. “Doctor Rush, Eli and all the other scientists work the hardest of all of us to find out what is happening. They are not sleeping, instead they keep working to help us all.”

Chloe and Camile agreed without any protest and Young took a chance to glance at working Eli and Rush again. Now they both seemed to be lost in some other world, not hearing anything that was happening around them, about which Young was actually very happy. When he was looking at Rush at that moment he wondered how could he accuse or even think about accusing Rush of not doing anything to help them all. He wanted to scream at himself.

“TJ is right. Doctor Rush and Eli both do everything they can…”

“Yes! We found it!”

Young blinked a couple of times and turned his head around to see Eli’s excitement and a small, subtle smile forming on Rush’s face as he run his fingers through his hair slowly, clearly satisfied. Eli was almost jumping around or would have if he wasn’t held in place by Chloe’s arms around his neck. At the image Young felt like smiling, but he had to hold back. Obviously not everybody was so excited about the news as most of the people were.

“Eli, would you like to explain?” he asked, curious himself, and the younger man blinked a couple of times, still holding on to Chloe. He exhaled, relieved, before answering.

“All the tremors were part of the ship’s reacting system. On three decks there are four small generators.” He licked his lips and exhaled again, probably searching for the right words to explain everything properly. “At first we thought they just protected the Destiny from overheating or something like that, because they were ensuring the level of heat and draining the heat to the four biggest, main rooms, so we left them alone, thinking they had nothing to do with the situation. We started checking out all the systems over again, but nothing really worked. Just now Doctor Rush noticed a leak of the energy in one of the generators, which made the whole system of linked generators a little crazy,” he looked at the computer screen once again.

“Was this one generator responsible for the whole mess?” asked Scott, incredulous. He probably wasn’t the only one and Eli must have noticed it, because he continued.

“The broken one started sending impulses to the others about the leak through the computer. The messages went unnoticed because our equipment is adapted to this kind of messages so it was kind or… regular, so to say, nothing unusual, so the computers never detected any problems. We think the computer never reacted, because the system is used to dealing with situations like this itself, but this time it had problems with regeneration, because the energy that was supposed to be used was taken by people on the ship and the tremors were the ship’s way to inform us about the lack of energy and the leak. “

“But everything seems to be under control now,” Rush interrupted as he turned around to look at the screen of the nearest computer. “I already directed and sent more energy to the damaged generator. I had to cut off a little from the less used parts of Destiny, so the tremors shouldn’t bother anybody anymore.”

“How long it’ll take to fully regenerate everything?”Scott asked.

“I believe about twelve hours with all the energy I directed to the generator. At least twelve or at least that’s how it looks like when I look at the data from the previous regeneration process. Everything is saved in the system, so if anybody has any questions about the last events, I believe Eli will agree to provide all the information and every explanation needed. Now, please excuse me. I still have some more work to do,” he turned his head around to nod shortly at Eli, Camile and Chloe, but before leaving the ‘gateroom his eyes locked with Young’s. Young wasn’t really sure what he saw, but it wasn’t anything good, that’s for sure. Young blinked and in the next second Rush was gone.

People were leaving the room, whispering amongst themselves. Some of them probably not really convinced, but for now he couldn’t do anything more. It they didn’t want to believe, he would never force them to change their minds.

When he felt a pair of arms around his neck, he turned his head to look at TJ, who was now smiling. Not a full, bright smile he was used to seeing. There was also concern on her face made him feel a little lost.

“Go to him. He’s had a hard time lately. He doesn’t talk much, but… he cares,” she said slowly the concern in her voice was clear. He sighed.

“Right now people…”

“I will take care of them, Everett. You have friends who want to help.”

“I can’t just go and leave them here. I’m responsible for…”

“Yes. But you forget you are not alone in this. You are not alone here. We all help each other with everything, why this time should be any different? You care about everybody here. But I think it’s time for you to do something for yourself now.”

“TJ…”

“Go, Everett.”

Young sighed once again and looked in TJ’s bright eyes. She was truly an amazing person, Young thought when he looked at her, when he felt her warm hand covering his and squeezing it lightly in a comforting, reassuring gesture. Young licked his lips, smiled and squeezed her hand back. She returned the smile and he felt like she was one of the most wonderful people he had ever met. He gave her a quick hug and when she broke the embrace she whispered, “I want you to be happy, Everett.”

“You’re amazing, TJ. I want you to know that.”

“Oh, believe me, I know.”

Young smiled again and left the room, once more glancing back to see TJ talking with a couple of civilians. He sighed and left to search for Rush. He had one idea where the other man could’ve gone, so he went to the second deck right away. After all the scientist looked like he needed some space when he was leaving so he wouldn’t have gone the places where anybody could see him. It meant he needed silence.

The observation deck was dark and quiet so he blinked a couple of times to let his eyes get used to the lack of light in the room. He looked around and finally saw a figure sitting on the bench and it looked like Rush was… lost in space.

For a moment Young wanted to just leave the deck and let Rush sit in peace without disturbing him, but something inside him made him go forward. He wasn’t trying to hide his presence in any way so he could give Rush a chance to say he didn’t want anybody disturbing him. If Rush told him to go, he would. Slowly, he closed the distance between the scientist and himself. When the other man was in front of him, he bent over and in kneeling position, he rested the elbows on his knees, as if sheltering the scientist. He noticed Rush’s right foot pushed under the railing, hands linked in front of him, but he didn’t even move or acknowledged Young’s presence in any other way. A few minutes of silence passed until Rush finally moved. Young was a little surprised when instead getting up and leaving, he felt Rush leaning back against him a little, and wrapped one arm around Young’s bent leg, relaxing even more. Young exhaled slowly, not wanting to make too much noise when everything was so peaceful and Rush’s fingers slowly massaged his knee. He brought the other man closer to him wrapping both arms around the scientist’s shoulder, letting Rush lay back against him even more, basking in their closeness.

They had rarely spend time on touching that didn’t lead to getting both of them in bed sooner or later, and they were both fine with it, it was what they both needed, what they both wanted and what they both got used to. But now, something seemed to be different. Now Rush clearly needed to be close, and in a way, just being here wrapped around the other man, offering him comfort he needed felt better than having sex with him. This whole new level of intimacy was… welcome. And he knew he wouldn’t mind getting so close to Rush like this more often.

He was sure nobody would come there, so he let himself relax, too, enjoying the quiet, peaceful moments in Rush’s company. But this moment wasn’t about him. It was about Rush and the fact that even if the scientist was used to people’s opinions about him, he still needed reassurance, somebody who would be close, somebody who would maybe believe in him. Young didn’t know if it was the time to ask. He was just glad Rush trusted him enough to let him be this person.

He wanted to say something for a moment, but he realized he didn’t have to. He lowered his head, resting his lips against the top of Rush’s head, breathing in the familiar scent and smiled lightly, when he felt Rush’s tightening the hold on his knee a little.

No words were needed between them at the moment. They were together and everything seemed to be just fine, didn’t matter what the others had thought about it.

**Author's Note:**

> [Nanuk-Dain](http://nanuk-dain.livejournal.com/) wanted a sequel. And based on her manip ["Together"](http://nanuk-dain.livejournal.com/31797.html)  
>  It took more than I expected, but I really tried my best. And this s my first try in writing a sequel, so pleae, don't be too hard on me? Also this is a first time when I post a fanfic in more than one post. Yay for me writing multi-chapters, I guess XDD Anyway, Rush/Young totally needs more love. And Camile deserves more appreciation.  
> I really, really hope you'll like it. I expect a long comment, because I really hope I haven't ruined anything... I'm scared, very, very scared right now...  
> Thanks to my wonderful beta, [Jean-Iris](http://jean-iris.livejournal.com/)
> 
> Also can be found **[*HERE*](http://megan-moonlight.livejournal.com/389744.html#cutid1)**


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